Failing to secure employment at any of these establishments, Lincoln,
though without money enough to pay a week's board in advance, resolved
to _buy_ a store. He was not long in finding an opportunity to
purchase. James Herndon had already sold out his half interest in
Herndon Brothers' store to William F. Berry; and Rowan Herndon, not
getting along well with Berry, was only too glad to find a purchaser
of his half in the person of "Abe" Lincoln. Berry was as poor as
Lincoln; but that was not a serious obstacle, for their notes were
accepted for the Herndon stock of goods. They had barely hung out
their sign when something happened which threw another store into
their hands. Reuben Radford had made himself obnoxious to the Clary's
Grove Boys, and one night they broke in his doors and windows,
and overturned his counters and sugar barrels. It was too much
for Radford, and he sold out next day to William G. Green for a
four-hundred-dollar note signed by Green. At the latter's request,
Lincoln made an inventory of the stock, and offered him six hundred
and fifty dollars for it--a proposition which was cheerfully
accepted. Berry and Lincoln, being unable to pay cash, assumed the
four-hundred-dollar note payable to Radford, and gave Green their
joint note for two hundred and fifty dollars. The little grocery owned
by James Rutledge was the next to succumb. Berry and Lincoln bought
it at a bargain, their joint note taking the place of cash. The three
stocks were consolidated. Their aggregate cost must have been not less
than fifteen hundred dollars. Berry and Lincoln had secured a monopoly
of the grocery business in New Salem. Within a few weeks two penniless
men had become the proprietors of three stores, and had stopped
buying only because there were no more to purchase.
[Illustration: THE EARLIEST PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
(REPRINTED FROM McCLURE'S FOR NOVEMBER).
From a daguerreotype in the possession of the Hon. Robert T. Lincoln,
taken before Lincoln was forty, and first published in the McCLURE'S
Life of Lincoln. Of the sixty or more portraits of Lincoln which will
be published in this series of articles, thirty, at least, will
be absolutely new to our readers; and of these thirty none is more
important than this early portrait. It is generally believed that
Lincoln was not over thirty-five years old when this daguerreotype was
taken, and it is certainly true that it is the face of Lincoln as a
young man. "About thirty would be the general verdict," says Mr. Murat
Halstead in an editorial in the Brooklyn "Standard-Union," "if it were
not that the daguerreotype was unknown when Lincoln was of that
age. It does not seem, however, that he could have been more than
thirty-five, and for that age the youthfulness of the portrait is
wonderful. This is a new Lincoln, and far more attractive, in a sense,
than anything the public has possessed. This is the portrait of a
remarkably handsome man.... The head is magnificent, the eyes deep
and generous, the mouth sensitive, the whole expression something
delicate, tender, pathetic, poetic. This was the young man with whom
the phantoms of romance dallied, the young man who recited poems and
was fanciful and speculative, and in love and despair, but upon
whose brow there already gleamed the illumination of intellect, the
inspiration of patriotism. There were vast possibilities in this young
man's face. He could have gone anywhere and done anything. He might
have been a military chieftain, a novelist, a poet, a philosopher, ah!
a hero, a martyr--and, yes, this young man might have been--he even
was Abraham Lincoln! This was he with the world before him. It is good
fortune to have the magical revelation of the youth of the man the
world venerates. This look into his eyes, into his soul--not before he
knew sorrow, but long before the world knew him--and to feel that it
is worthy to be what it is, and that we are better acquainted with him
and love him the more, is something beyond price."]
[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1859.
From a photograph in the collection of H.W. Fay, De Kalb, Illinois.
The original was made by S.M. Fassett, of Chicago; the negative
was destroyed in the Chicago fire. This picture was made at the
solicitation of D.B. Cook, who says that Mrs. Lincoln pronounced it
the best likeness she had ever seen of her husband. Rajon used the
Fassett picture as the original of his etching, and Kruell has made a
fine engraving of it.]
[Illustration: LINCOLN IN THE SUMMER OF 1860.
From a copy (made by E.A. Bromley of the Minneapolis "Journal" staff)
of a photograph owned by Mrs. Cyrus Aldrich, whose husband, now dead,
was a congressman from Minnesota. In the summer of 1860 Mr. M.C.
Tuttle, a photographer of St. Paul, wrote to Mr. Lincoln requesting
that he have a negative taken and sent to him for local use in the
campaign. The request was granted, but the negative was broken in
transit. On learning of the accident, Mr. Lincoln sat again, and with
the second negative he sent a jocular note wherein he referred to the
fact, disclosed by the picture, that in the interval he had "got a
new coat." A few copies of the picture were made by Mr. Tuttle, and
distributed among the Republican editors of the State. It has never
before been reproduced. Mrs. Aldrich's copy was presented to her by
William H. Seward, when he was entertained at the Aldrich homestead
(now the Minneapolis City Hospital) in September, 1860. A fine copy
of this same photograph is in the possession of Mr. Ward Monroe, of
Jersey City, N.J.]
William F. Berry, the partner of Lincoln, was the son of a
Presbyterian minister, the Rev. John Berry, who lived on Rock Creek,
five miles from New Salem. The son had strayed from the footsteps of
the father, for he was a hard drinker, a gambler, a fighter, and "a
very wicked young man." Lincoln cannot in truth be said to have chosen
such a partner, but rather to have accepted him from the force of
circumstances. It required only a little time to make it plain that
the partnership was wholly uncongenial. Lincoln displayed little
business capacity. He trusted largely to Berry; and Berry rapidly
squandered the profits of the business in riotous living. Lincoln
loved books as Berry loved liquor, and hour after hour he was
stretched out on the counter of the store or under a shade tree,
reading Shakespeare or Burns.
[Illustration: LINCOLN EARLY IN 1861.--PROBABLY THE EARLIEST PORTRAIT
SHOWING HIM WITH A BEARD.
From a photograph in the collection of H.W. Fay of De Kalb, Illinois,
taken probably in Springfield early in 1861. It is supposed to have
been the first, or at least one of the first, portraits made of Mr.
Lincoln after he began to wear a beard. As is well known, his face
was smooth until about the end of 1860; and when he first allowed his
beard to grow, it became a topic of newspaper comment, and even of
caricature. A pretty story relating to Lincoln's adoption of a beard
is more or less familiar. A letter written to the editor of the
present Life, under date of December 6, 1895, by Mrs. Grace Bedell
Billings, tells this story, of which she herself as a little girl was
the heroine, in a most charming way. The letter will be found printed
in full at the end of this article, on page 240.]
His thorough acquaintance with the works of these two writers
dates from this period. In New Salem there was one of those curious
individuals sometimes found in frontier settlements, half poet, half
loafer, incapable of earning a living in any steady employment, yet
familiar with good literature and capable of enjoying it--Jack Kelso.
He repeated passages from Shakespeare and Burns incessantly over the
odd jobs he undertook or as he idled by the streams--for he was
a famous fisherman--and Lincoln soon became one of his constant
companions. The taste he formed in company with Kelso he retained
through life. William D. Kelley tells an incident which shows that
Lincoln had a really intimate knowledge of Shakespeare. Mr. Kelley
had taken McDonough, an actor, to call at the White House; and Lincoln
began the conversation by saying:
[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1861.
From a photograph loaned by Mr. Frank A. Brown of Minneapolis,
Minnesota. This beautiful photograph was taken, probably early in
1861, by Alexander Hesler of Chicago. It was used by Leonard W. Volk,
the sculptor, in his studies of Lincoln, and closely resembles the
fine etching by T. Johnson.]
"'I am very glad to meet you, Mr. McDonough, and am grateful to Kelley
for bringing you in so early, for I want you to tell me something
about Shakespeare's plays as they are constructed for the stage. You
can imagine that I do not get much time to study such matters, but I
recently had a couple of talks with Hackett--Baron Hackett, as they
call him--who is famous as Jack Falstaff, but from whom I elicited few
satisfactory replies, though I probed him with a good many questions.'
"Mr. McDonough," continues Mr. Kelley, "avowed his willingness to give
the President any information in his possession, but protested that
he feared he would not succeed where his friend Hackett had failed.
'Well, I don't know,' said the President, 'for Hackett's lack of
information impressed me with a doubt as to whether he had ever
studied Shakespeare's text, or had not been content with the acting
edition of his plays.' He arose, went to a shelf not far from his
table, and having taken down a well-thumbed volume of the 'Plays
of Shakespeare,' resumed his seat, arranged his glasses, and having
turned to 'Henry VI.' and read with fine discrimination an extended
passage, said: 'Mr. McDonough, can you tell me why those lines
are omitted from the acting play? There is nothing I have read in
Shakespeare, certainly nothing in 'Henry VI.' or the 'Merry Wives of
Windsor,' that surpasses its wit and humor.' The actor suggested the
breadth of its humor as the only reason he could assign for omission,
but thoughtfully added that it was possible that if the lines were
spoken they would require the rendition of another or other passages
which might be objectionable.
[Illustration: THE STATE-HOUSE AT VANDALIA, ILLINOIS--NOW USED AS A
COURT-HOUSE.
Vandalia was the State capital of Illinois for twenty years, and three
different State-houses were built and occupied there. The first,
a two-story frame structure, was burned down December 9, 1823. The
second was a brick building, and was erected at a cost of $12,381.50,
of which the citizens of Vandalia contributed $3,000. The agitation
for the removal of the capital to Springfield began in 1833, and in
the summer of 1836 the people of Vandalia, becoming alarmed at the
prospect of their little city's losing its prestige as the seat of the
State government, tore down the old capitol (much complaint being made
about its condition), and put up a new one at a cost of $16,000.
The tide was too great to be checked; but after the "Long Nine" had
secured the passage of the bill taking the capital to Springfield,
the money which the Vandalia people had expended was refunded. The
State-house shown in this picture was the third and last one. In it
Lincoln served as a legislator. Ceasing to be the capitol July 4,
1839, it was converted into a court-house for Fayette County, and is
still so used.--_J. McCan Davis._]
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS--PHOTOGRAPHED FOR
McCLURE'S MAGAZINE.
After Lincoln gave up surveying, he sold his instruments to John B.
Gum, afterward county surveyor of Menard County. Mr. Gum kept them
until a few years ago, when he presented the instruments to the
Lincoln Monument Association, and they are now on exhibition at the
monument in Springfield, Ill.]
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A TAVERN LICENSE ISSUED TO BERRY AND
LINCOLN MARCH 6, 1833, BY THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT OF SANGAMON
COUNTY.
The only tavern in New Salem in 1833 was that kept by James
Rutledge--a two-story log-structure of five rooms, standing just
across the street from Berry and Lincoln's store. Here Lincoln
boarded. It seems entirely probable that he may have had an ambition
to get into the tavern business, and that he and Berry obtained a
license with that end in view, possibly hoping to make satisfactory
terms for the purchase of the Rutledge hostelry. The tavern of sixty
years ago, besides answering the purposes of the modern hotel, was the
dramshop of the frontier. The business was one which, in Illinois, the
law strictly regulated. Tavern-keepers were required to pay a license
fee, and to give bonds to insure their good behavior. Minors were not
to be harbored, nor did the law permit liquor to be sold to them; and
the sale to slaves of any liquors "or strong drink, mixed or unmixed,
either within or without doors," was likewise forbidden. Nor could the
poor Indian get any "fire-water" at the tavern or the grocery. If
a tavern-keeper violated the law, two-thirds of the fine assessed
against him went to the poor people of the county. The Rutledge tavern
was the only one at New Salem of which we have any authentic account.
It was kept by others besides Mr. Rutledge; for a time by Henry
Onstott the cooper, and then by Nelson Alley, and possibly there were
other landlords; but nothing can be more certain than that Lincoln
was not one of them. The few surviving inhabitants of the vanished
village, and of the country round about, have a clear recollection of
Berry and Lincoln's store--of how it looked, and of what things were
sold in it; but not one has been found with the faintest remembrance
of a tavern kept by Lincoln, or by Berry, or by both. Stage passengers
jolting into New Salem sixty-two years ago must, if Lincoln was an
inn-keeper, have partaken of his hospitality by the score; but if they
did, they all died many, many years ago, or have all maintained an
unaccountable and most perplexing silence.--_J. McCan Davis._]
"'Your last suggestion,' said Mr. Lincoln, 'carries with it greater
weight than anything Mr. Hackett suggested, but the first is no reason
at all;' and after reading another passage, he said, 'This is not
withheld, and where it passes current there can be no reason for
withholding the other.'... And, as if feeling the impropriety of
preferring the player to the parson, [there was a clergyman in the
room] he turned to the chaplain and said: 'From your calling it is
probable that you do not know that the acting plays which people crowd
to hear are not always those planned by their reputed authors. Thus,
take the stage edition of "Richard III." It opens with a passage from
"Henry VI.," after which come portions of "Richard III.," then another
scene from "Henry VI.," and the finest soliloquy in the play, if we
may judge from the many quotations it furnishes, and the frequency
with which it is heard in amateur exhibitions, was never seen by
Shakespeare, but was written--was it not, Mr. McDonough?--after his
death, by Colley Cibber."
"Having disposed, for the present, of questions relating to the stage
editions of the plays, he recurred to his standard copy, and, to
the evident surprise of Mr. McDonough, read or repeated from memory
extracts from several of the plays, some of which embraced a number of
lines.
"It must not be supposed that Mr. Lincoln's poetical studies had
been confined to his plays. He interspersed his remarks with extracts
striking from their similarity to, or contrast with, something of
Shakespeare's, from Byron, Rogers, Campbell, Moore, and other English
poets."[1]
[Illustration: BERRY AND LINCOLN'S STORE IN 1895.
From a recent photograph by C.S. McCullough, Petersburg, Illinois. The
little frame store-building occupied by Berry and Lincoln at New Salem
is now standing at Petersburg, Illinois, in the rear of L.W. Bishop's
gun-shop. Its history after 1834 is somewhat obscure, but there is no
reason for doubting its identity. According to tradition it was bought
by Robert Bishop, the father of the present owner, about 1835, from
Mr. Lincoln himself; but it is difficult to reconcile this legend with
the sale of the store to the Trent brothers, unless, upon the flight
of the latter from the country and the closing of the store, the
building, through the leniency of creditors, was allowed to revert
to Mr. Lincoln, in which event he no doubt sold it at the first
opportunity and applied the proceeds to the payment of the debts of
the firm. When Mr. Bishop bought the store building, he removed it to
Petersburg. It is said that the removal was made in part by Lincoln
himself; that the job was first undertaken by one of the Bales, but
that, encountering some difficulty, he called upon Lincoln to assist
him, which Lincoln did. The structure was first set up adjacent to Mr.
Bishop's house, and converted into a gun-shop. Later it was removed to
a place on the public square; and soon after the breaking out of the
late war, Mr. Bishop, erecting a new building, pushed Lincoln's
store into the back-yard, and there it still stands. Soon after the
assassination of Mr. Lincoln, the front door was presented to some
one in Springfield, and has long since been lost sight of. It is
remembered by Mr. Bishop that in this door there was an opening for
the reception of letters--a circumstance of importance as tending to
establish the genuineness of the building, when it is remembered that
Lincoln was postmaster while he kept the store. The structure, as it
stands to-day, is about eighteen feet long, twelve feet in width, and
ten feet in height. The back room, however, has disappeared, so
that the building as it stood when occupied by Berry and Lincoln
was somewhat longer. Of the original building there only remain the
frame-work, the black-walnut weather-boarding on the front end and
the ceiling of sycamore boards. One entire side has been torn away by
relic-hunters. In recent years the building has been used as a sort
of store-room. Just after a big fire in Petersburg some time ago,
the city council condemned the Lincoln store building and ordered it
demolished. Under this order a portion of one side was torn down, when
Mr. Bishop persuaded the city authorities to desist, upon giving
a guarantee that if Lincoln's store ever caught fire he would be
responsible for any loss which might ensue.--_J. McCan Davis._]